Winnipeg Downtown BIZ celebrates 30 years with new look, maintains same vision for safer, more vibrant core

The Downtown Winnipeg BIZ celebrated its 30th birthday on Thursday, including revealing a new look for its branding — but acknowledged there's still work to do to create a vibrant downtown where people feel safe.

"It's really about being connected and inclusive, and something that's fresh and modern. We're really going to be focusing on the people that are already inclined to be downtown," said Downtown BIZ CEO Kate Fenske.

More than a hundred people went to the business improvement zone's annual general meeting in the downtown Hudson's Bay building on Thursday, to celebrate the organization's 30 years of existence. While the BIZ unveiled new branding at the AGM, Fenske said its focus will remain on an active and safe downtown.

She said a survey of 3,000 Winnipeggers in July highlighted goals to grow and help address social challenges downtown.

"They're really looking for more of that 24/7 activity, vibrant in the evening and on weekends, and also working on some of the challenges that we have around safety, homelessness, addictions and advocating for more support." 

Some of those issues were highlighted by the Winnipeg Police Service Thursday, which unveiled a new online map that shows data on calls for police service, broken down by neighbourhood and by the nature of the call.

The map shows that in recent weeks, officers were called to the downtown more than twice as often than they were called to any other neighbourhood in the city.

'Absolutely have challenges'

Fenske said in 2020, the BIZ will work even more with community groups that already support marginalized people, but that she maintains an optimistic view of downtown.

"There's a new energy that we're feeling right now. There's a lot of investment happening downtown," she said.

"Yes, we absolutely have challenges, and it's trying to figure out how do we work together how to prevent crime, and we need to do that as a city — and it's not just downtown."

The BIZ has 25 foot patrol members, but Fenske said she'd like to see the organization's presence on the street grow.  

"We're trying to manage 250 city blocks. Our downtown is one of the biggest downtowns in North America. But it's important that we have that visibility and that presence and the welcoming based downtown," she said.

Andrew Eastman, one of the co-founders of Synonym Art Consultation, said he'd like to see a "community-oriented approach to security downtown."

He and Chloe Chafe, the other co-found of Synonym — which helps artists to bring murals and art to WInnipeg's public spaces — were at the AGM to celebrate.

Chafe said it's important to address root causes of social issues "and actually supporting the community spaces, like Studio 393, Graffiti Art Programming — and really actually providing safe places for people to grow and create and actually foster community, rather than just kind of trying to catch up."

"We just provide such essential services to our city that aren't necessarily tied directly to the justice system and penalizing people for just living downtown," said Eastman. 

A report will be presented to city council's executive policy committee at its meeting next week on several downtown improvement initiatives undertaken in the past year, including:

• Up to $300,000 for the creation of a building exterior lighting grant program.
• Up to $150,000 for a community safety centre to promote safety.
• Up to $150,000 for the modernization and expansion of the Winnipeg Police Service closed-circuit TV program.
• $24,000 for a year-long TrackTik pilot project — software that will help security and outreach workers connect and communicate with each other. 

Money for the initiatives come from the destination marketing reserve, a fund built up from proceeds of Winnipeg's hotel tax.